Budapest Régiségei 19. (1959)

ANYAGKÖZLÉSEK - Szentléleky Tihamér: Aquincumi mécskészítő műhelyek 167-203

be manufactured and sold to render their production as much, and even more, profitable than the one of lamps with relief decoration. The population, rapidly increasing both in number and in pretensions, is representing this new, broader market. The considerable demand is reactive and is promoting the development of the easier, cheaper and quicker way of manufacturing. The adornments without a functional purpose are not present in the firms' lamps of new type any more. The encircling brim, preventing the oil from running over, presents the only protruding articulation. A regression appears in ornamental elements, although, as contrasted with the firms' lamps generally in use, it is just the more adorned types where the local industry is able to create new forms. Thus are formed in Aquincum the types VIII and IX. At the time when lamp-making is spreading in Pannónia, the simplest way to mass-production is moulding in I to III phases. This was already demonstrated by the negative mould in the form of a gladiator's helmet. The method used during production is the following : In order to avoid its getting sticky, the original model to be moulded or maybe one of the lamps is strewn over with fine dust, then it is surrounded with a ty

2 cm thick layer of clay. After having been moulded, the form is thoroughly baked. Negative moulds have been made already in the first Aquincum workshop ; namely, in the material in question also a positive model is to be found. Thus the threephase way of production is the following : I. The positive model II. The negative mould III. The ready lamp. In the material of the second part, of the workshop near the Military Supply Depot, as much as thirteen moulds are to be found. As compared with the model of the helmet-shaped lamp, attributable to influences from Germany, the models of the new plant are very thick and their surface has a trough-like form. The mould of the voluted lamp is the only one without a curved outer surface. This surface is meeting the horizontal one of the backplate at a right angle. The fact that the handle is moulded simultaneously with the model, means an advance in technique. The negative moulds found in the pottery plant (active from the middle of the 2nd century) near the gas-works are more carefully and more precisely elaborated. Their surface is horizontal and the edges meet at right angles. The mould marked FABI FECIT FORMÁM may be ranked in the early material. Traces of painting are to be seen on the outside and the reverse is not horizontal but follows the foliform, up wards-turned handle of the lid. The models discovered at the gas-works present the culmination in the development of lamp production in Pannónia. Although the material is scarce, one can draw conclusions with regard to the organization of these workshops. Thus, the kilns were established, evidently, by two masters already experienced in potter's craft, by FABIUS and by VICTOR yet soon the series of the masters of the next generation was formed. The name of the makers must have meant a good brand since the FAB and VICT marks on the bottom become firms' marks. From the number of kilns and from the angular forms with adjusting lines (enabling an easy storage of greater stocks), which forms were found in considerable quantities, one may conclude that goods were produced in considerable quantities in the plant. As it can be ascertained from the material excavated in the of the Macellum, a progress can be observed in connection with general transitory upswing till the times of Gordianus III, regarding the lamp-manufacturing of Aquincum raised to the rank of a "colonia". A deterioration regarding forms and qualities can be perceived in the material of lamps making plant discovered at the site of workers' lodgings of the present-day gas-works. Nor are the selection of material and the burning satisfactory. The fact that after moulding, still in a damp state, impressions of dotted adormments have been applied on the model, is attributable to the crudeness of the mould. The finger-prints, showing on the outside of the mould, allow us to draw the conclusion that the clay was pugged on the model by means of the hands. Such prints are seen especially on the notched surfaces of the finely adorned brim. The marks of masters disappear altogether, the bottom-mark is in most cases worn off and indecipherable. It can be laid down as a fact that the general crisis beginning from the second half of the 3rd century, means a hindrance to the further development of lamp-manufacturing also. From the 4th century on lamp-producing workshops are not represented in the excavation-material found in Aquincum up to the present, though, according to the sporadic finds, there followed a slight improvement — of a transitory character — in quality. 202